


Angus' New Friend

by kwinke



Series: Post-Cannon and All Is Well [4]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Coming Out, Hand Jobs, Hurt/Comfort, I promise, M/M, Nonbinary Character, Trans Character, mostly about Angus though, no sex for the underaged boy, sorry i couldnt help myself
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-07-07 20:01:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15915255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kwinke/pseuds/kwinke
Summary: Angus is home for summer break, and he decides to talk to his dads about his new friend M who is far more comfortable with themself than Angus is with himself.





	1. Angus Comes Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angus tells his dads about a new friend he has at school, and confesses some anxieties he's been having about being who he is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter is rated G!!!

It was an abnormally warm Spring day when the gang moved Angus back home.  Luckily, thanks to having three Reapers and a Magnus at his disposal, the entire move took a little under an hour to carry all of the contents of his boarding school bedroom through a few portals and into his bedroom back home, and Lup joked that they should start a moving service and charge for their services.  Despite the low time commitment of the move, the whole family was still wiped out by dinner time, and Lup and Barry volunteered to work a little extra so that Kravitz could spend the evening eating and chatting with the now-teenaged detective and his other two dads.

Angus told them about his last week of school in extensive detail, as the men would come to expect no less, and the conversation mostly consisted of events that they hadn’t yet heard about since their last family dinner the Friday before.  Angus talked about their end of the year parties and study groups, how the school is making him pick a ‘focus’ for his final two years of high school and that he really couldn’t just pick one so he is going to try to pick several, and then when he’s caught his dads up on the crazy last week of school, he falls silent.

“Sirs? Can I have friends over to visit over summer?” he asks quietly, and Taako points his eyes at him.

“Ango, why the fuck would you even think that you would need to ask that? Of course you can have your friends over to visit why the fuck wouldn’t you?” he demands over a glass of wine and Angus visibly relaxes at that.

“Do their parents want to meet us first? Did you have someone in mind?” Kravitz asks more reserved than the elf.

“Oh, no, I don’t think meeting their parents is necessary,” Angus blushes, and Taako watches him avert his eyes back down to his empty plate.

“Is this a _special friend_ you’ve failed to tell us about?” Taako asks, waggling his eyebrows.  And Angus has been home for dinner at least once a week for as long as he’s been away, has spent long weekends with his dads, calls at least once a day to update them that he is still doing well, but he has never mentioned having a significant other. 

Angus blushes and smiles, and Taako knows he’s caught him.

“Well tell us about it!  Do you have a picture? How did you meet? Do you need us to have The Talk with you?” Angus blushes even deeper and looks helplessly to Kravitz and Magnus as if they will somehow get Taako to stop embarrassing him, but they look just as amused as Taako does.

“Well, we’re not – we’re just friends, sir.  I don’t even know if they like me.  They go by M. I was going to see if they wanted to come and visit next weekend, if you guys would be okay with it?” Angus looks anxious, as he watches the three of them intake the information about his crush, but there’s no real reaction outside of encouraging smiles. 

“Of course that’s fine, buddy.  We have an open door policy until you’re 18 though” Magnus smiles and Angus jumps up and gives him a hug.

“Thank you sirs! I’m going to call them now and invite them up on Friday!” Angus looks super excited and Magnus hugs him back.  Angus trots off to his room smiling, and even closes the door behind him.  Taako looks bewildered at the two men still at the table with him.

“Oh, gods, we have an actual teenager to raise now”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The family was posted up in the den, with Magnus and Kravitz on the couch and Taako and Angus playing with the cats by the fireplace. Kravitz was lounging into Magnus’ side with a book on his lap while the fighter read over his shoulder, drawing absentminded shapes into Kravitz’ shoulder. Taako was trying to coax Panther into attacking a string attached to a stick, and when he finally did it, Princess jumped into action behind him. Panther sighed dejectedly and resumed his spot perched on the armchair. Angus laughed at his dejected stare while he watched Princess dance around the floor chasing the string.

“Sirs, can I ask you something?” He asks unprompted, body language visibly anxious.

“Anything, Angus” Kravitz smiles and bookmarks his page without even finishing his paragraph.

“Well, I suppose it’s a question mostly for Taako but… how did you get to be so… comfortable with yourselves?” He asks, seeming to look for the words to finish his sentence as he speaks them.

“What do you mean, son?” Magnus asks, adjusting his body to align a bit more comfortably with the man’s he was holding, still tracing fingers along the skin of his arm.

“Well, like… my friend M, they are just so confident with themselves, and I feel like I’m always nervous and second guessing what I wear and how I look and I just… I don’t know. I guess I want to feel more confident in myself too?” He asks, still stumbling around his words.

“Well, when I was your age, I always felt awkward about, like, everything,” Magnus admits and all of them laugh a bit at that, releasing some of the tension in the room. “But, I don’t know, you just kind of try things out until they fit better. Like, if you don’t like dressing up all the time, you can try dressing more athletic, or goth, or whatever. Or maybe you can try out different hairstyles or wearing contacts instead of glasses,” he suggests with a shrug, and Angus nods, pondering over the advice.

“Maybe I will try that out this summer. Although, I do like my glasses,” he smiles, and turns his focus back to Taako. “Is that how you figured out you like wearing dresses, Sir?” He asks a little more nervously.

“Fuck yeah, my dude. Lup and I both started wearing dresses around the same time, and we tried out different pronouns and hairstyles and shit too. I just figured out that I still liked being called ‘he’ when it made her uncomfortable,” he shrugs, and Angus looks like he’s taking in that advice a little more intimately than he did Magnus’.

“Angus, if you would like for us to use different pronouns for you, all you gotta do is tell us,” Magnus says.

“Well, I don’t know, sir. What if I start using different pronouns, but then I don’t like them after a while?” Angus asks nervously.

“Then you tell us what pronouns you want to use when whatever we’re using starts feeling uncomfortable, bubelah” Taako answers. “Do you want us to start using different pronouns now? Because we will. And it can just be between us if you want, too, to see how it feels before you have to start telling people. We’re your family, you’re safe with us, you know?” Taako finishes, and reaches out to touch the boy’s arm. Angus smiles and goes to hug Taako.

“Thank you, sirs. I think I’m going to talk with M about it a little bit this weekend, if that’s alright? I want to hear their perspective, see how they came to realize they wanted to use different pronouns,” Angus mumbles into Taako’s shoulder, and Taako closes his eyes and squeezes his boy tight.

“Of course that’s alright, kemosabe. You just let us know whatever you want. Would you want to talk to Lup some, too? You don’t have to if you don’t want to”

“… I don’t know right now, sir. But thank you” he smiles, still hugging the elf closely.

If Kravitz tensed up during that entire conversation, Angus needed a much higher Perception Check to have noticed. And if Magnus pulled the man a little closer, kissed his hair and tightened his grip on him, that also fell under Angus’ radar.


	2. Kravitz Feels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's some sexy times in this chapter, so like don't read that if you don't want to I guess???

Taako had convinced the men that since it was _so incredibly hot_ in their bedroom, it would do them all best to void out clothing for the evening, and since it was Kravitz’ turn in the rotation to sleep in the middle, this meant that he was laying on his back on top of the sheets, half-hard, with an elf plastered into the left side of his body. Magnus laid on his right facing Kravitz, but less plastered on top of the man.

Taako was kissing along Kravitz’ jaw when the man decided to clear his throat and speak up quietly. 

“I wanted to thank you both for not outing me to Angus today” he quietly mumbled, and Taako kissed up to his ear, around the shell, leaving Kravitz warm and shivering.

“Bubelah, we would never out you to anyone. Not even Angus” he whispered into the man’s ear, and Kravitz felt goosebumps projecting all along his body. Magnus pulled Kravitz’ wrist to his own lips and started laying kisses along the inside of his hand.  “Although, I think he and everyone else in this planar system _might_ know that you’re gay” Taako laughs as he starts sucking a bruise into the space along his neck below his earlobe, and Kravitz is more than half-hard by now.

“Well, it’s hard not to be when the two of you do this to me every night” he grits against his teeth, and the two boys chuckle and let their hands wander over his chest, his abdomen, the inside of his thighs.  They’re quiet then for a beat, just feeling over his body, running delicate fingers over his skin before there’s the sensation of elf fingers dragging over Kravitz’ cock.

Taako kisses his ear again as he asks, “Is this okay?” And as if Kravitz’ cock springing to attention wasn’t enough of an answer, he moans a quiet ‘yes’ into the room.

The two of them bring him off like that, quietly and sensually; with Magnus dragging soft fingers along the inside of his thighs, pressing gently into his hole, rolling his balls around in his large hands, and Taako whispering a grease cantrip into his palm and slowly stroking him to completion.  The reaper shudders beneath the two of their hands, shaking through his pleasure and then kissing them deeply as he finishes into Taako’s hand. He feels loved, adored, cherished, valued. 

The three of them curl up and fall asleep like that, albeit not before Kravitz mutters a Prestidigitation to clean up the mess he’s left on his own abdomen, and Kravitz dreams. 

He dreams in a montage of growing up, about being anxious and unhappy and visibly uncomfortable in who he was. He dreams about trying out different styles of clothing, different hairstyles, about nothing fitting quite right. He dreams about kissing boys and finding comfort, but not enough that he felt confident in who he was. 

He dreams about the Raven Queen taking him in, about her showing him the souls of her other Reapers and drawing similarities in his anxieties with theirs. She shows him how to construct whoever it is that he wants to be and he dreams about the centuries he spent trying to figure that out.

He dreams about growing up in today’s time, about growing up in Angus’ place, and what if he had met someone like M in a class, or if he had an aunt like Lup, or a dad like Taako to show him that you don’t have to align yourself to a gender that you were assigned at birth. He cries in his dream at how loving his fathers are when he comes to them with his anxieties, when he tells them that he doesn’t want to be a girl anymore and that maybe he never really was. 

It’s a strange thing, to wake up feeling jealous that his son is loved so incredibly deeply when he felt compelled to kill himself for the same reasons when he was alive.  It’s a strange thing to climb out of bed, wedged between two of the most caring souls he’s ever met, to stand staring at his teenage son from the door of his bedroom and fill with so much love and desire that he too will one day feel confident in who he is, whoever he is.

Taako finds him standing there, wraps his arms around his waist and rests his sleepy head on his shoulder. Kravitz brings himself out of whatever trance he was in and notices that there are steady tears streaming down his face and turns to kiss the elf.

“Hey, he’s going to be okay, babe. He has us,” Taako whispers. And Kravitz nods, turns, and stifles a sob into the elf’s hair. They hold each other in the doorway of Angus’ room.

And if Angus didn’t notice Kravitz’ silence during their conversation the night before, he is able to piece together some puzzles when he wakes up to the two of them crying outside of his room in the early hours the next morning.


	3. Nail Art and Sleepover Anxiety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They paint their nails and go to bed.
> 
> Taako has anxieties.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is rated G!!!

Kravitz rips a tear into their home by the front door like he usually does, and waits for his human construct to form over his Grim Reaper appearance before he follows the sounds of voices into the den. It’s in there that he finds Taako, Magnus, Angus, and the friend that he assumes to be M gathered by the fireplace painting each other’s nails.  Taako is closest to the fireplace, with spreaders between his already painted bright-pink toes while he leans over and does a deep red color onto Magnus’ finger nails.  M has one of Angus’ feet in their lap and is doing a baby blue polish on his toes while Angus throws his head back and laughs at something they said. It’s then that he notices Kravitz’ silhouette in the doorway.

“Hello sir! This is M!  M, this is my other dad, Kravitz!”

Kravitz smiles warmly down at the androgynous teenager, and walks into the room to settle on the couch.  

“M, it is so nice to finally meet you. Angus has said nothing but great things about you” He replies as he finds his seat and M blushes, looking back at Angus nervously. 

“Aww, well thanks, I’m glad to finally meet Angus’ family. You guys have an incredible home” They blush, looking at Kravitz while they speak but then promptly regaining their focus on Angus’ toes.  The room maintains a peacefulness for a beat, until Magnus’ hand is complete and Taako mumbles a drying spell so that the overly excited man can jump up to greet Kravitz. 

“Babe, look, Taako transmuted his red into blood red! What do you think? Totally rad, right?” He asks as he collapses onto the couch next to Kravitz, holding his fingers out to him.  Kravitz admires the color and kisses the backs of Magnus’ hands before interlacing his fingers with them.

“They are beautiful, my love” he smiles and Magnus blushes and kisses Kravitz’ cheek. 

“Taako’s going to go get started on making those pizzas, then, so don’t do anything too fun without me,” Taako drawls as he waves the drying spell over his toes and, still delicately, waddles his way through the den and to the kitchen. 

“Dove, would you like for us to help?” Kravitz asks kindly, nudging Magnus a bit in the process while motioning with his head down to the two teenagers on the floor.

“Yeah, that’s got to be a lot of pizzas for two growing teens,” Magnus muses, winking at Kravitz and going to stand. Angus looks back at his dads blushing hard with eyes wide, obviously embarrassed by them.

“Yeah, no, you’re right - I was thinking two for the kids, one for Krav and I, and then like six for you, you fucking animal” Taako yells from the kitchen, and the whole of them laugh as the two adults extract themselves from the den to help Taako with dinner.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

M was in the bathroom brushing their teeth and changing when Taako brought a tray containing a plate of fresh cookies and a bowl of popcorn into Angus’ room. He set the tray down on the dresser and sat down on the bed next to Angus, who was searching through the Fantasy Netflix on the TV for a movie to watch with M.

“You good, Ango? You want me to set up a guest bedroom or anything like that?” Taako asks, searching Angus’ face for any sign of discomfort outside of the typical teenage anxieties.

Angus blushes, looking away from the screen obviously lost in a memory, but then looking back at Taako. “No, sir, but thank you. We’ve, errrr, I mean, they’ve slept over in my dorm before so it’s okay,” Angus responds and Taako nods, feeling anxiety bubble in his chest but not wanting to overwhelm the teenager.

“We still OK about that open door policy then?” He asks, glancing towards the door and talking a bit quieter.  Angus blushes deeper.

“Yes, sir, we’re just friends, I promise. I would have told you if this were anything else. I don’t even think they see me that way”

“They’d be dumb not to, babe” Taako kisses the top of Angus’ head, a bit relieved but still feeling overprotective.  “Did you talk to them yet, about that stuff you wanted to?” 

“No, I haven’t really found a good time to yet… I was going to tonight, once you guys went to sleep, if that’s okay?”  he asks nervously, and Taako chuckles, still hugging the boy close to his chest. 

“Of course that’s okay bubelah. And if not, you can invite them over another weekend and we can do this all again.  We’re on your timeline in this house, no one else’s”

“Thank you for cooking dinner. The pizzas were great” Angus smiles, and it was then that M walked into the room and Taako’s smile warmly welcomes them back into the room and conversation.  Their eyes return the smile, but the room fills a bit with unspoken tension, so Taako stands up from his spot on the bed and pats the spot by Angus where he had been sitting.

“Sorry that we haven’t gotten Ango a bigger bed yet – we’ll have to put that on the list so that he can have more friends stay over. You kids want pancakes in the morning?  Banana and choco-chip?” Taako rambles, watching M take their spot next to Angus and the two of them blush. Oh, to be a teenager again.

“Sir, I have a bigger bed here than I do at the school. I’m perfectly comfortable with a full-sized bed. Also, M is allergic to banana but loves chocolate chip with peanut butter,” Angus replies, and M’s head whips around to stare at his face.

“I can’t believe you remembered that”

“You threw up all over the commons, how was I supposed to forget?”  Angus laughs and Taako backs his way out of the room and turns off the hall light as he finds his way down to his own room. He finds Kravitz and Magnus already in there, watching a Fantasy Netflix documentary that Kravitz seems entranced in and Magnus looks away from immediately. 

“How are they?” Magnus asks anxiously, and Taako smiles as he slips off his slippers and climbs into bed between the two boys.

“They’re good. Door is open. Angus is going to talk to M tonight.  We’re making chocolate and peanut butter pancakes in the morning” Taako snuggles up to rest his chin on Kravitz’ shoulder, who winds an arm around the elf while keeping his eyes on the TV.  Magnus spoons up behind him and kisses his neck. 

“I’m glad, love. I hope that they have a good night” Kravitz mumbles at the same time that Magnus says “Wait, no banana pancakes?”

“Nah, M is allergic.  I think I’ll put some peanut butter in the batter, and then make up a special peanut butter mousse?  Or maybe a syrup? I haven’t decided yet.” Taako yawns and pulls Magnus’ arm around his waist, shimmying his ass purposely into the fighter’s lap.  Magnus grumbles into the elf’s ear and pushes his now half-hardon back against his ass.  “Sorry, kemosabe, no one’s getting laid tonight. I don’t want the kiddos to get any ideas. Also, I’m hoping that dream Taako makes a decision about mousse versus syrup”

“What about a chocolate batter with chocolate chips and a peanut butter mousse?”  Kravitz asks, and Magnus huffs into the elf’s ear. Taako laughs at the domesticity of his life. 

“I love it.  You’re a genius”


	4. As Night Turns Into Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angus talks to M. Kravitz talks to Taako. All five of them enjoy some incredible pancakes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is rated G!!!

Angus and M settled into sitting positions on the bed, still scrolling through the Fantasy Netflix as they were still unable to pick a movie.  M began speaking first, filling the awkward silence of the bedroom.

“It’s really cool that you have, like, the three chillest dads in the world.

Angus chuckles at that, remembering their lives before they settled down, before the Hunger was defeated and when the men were absolute messes of people.

“Yeah, I mean, it took some time for things to get there. But it’s been a few years and they’re happy. I’m glad they have each other. I think they’re better together,” he muses, and he means it too because they’re still not really whole people yet, but they balance each other out well. He’s never questioned that they love each other, or that whether or not they loved him.  The uncomfortable small talk doesn’t do much for his anxieties, though, and he knows that if he doesn’t get up the nerve to talk to M now, he’ll just feel worse about everything in the morning.

“I can’t imagine what things were like for you before The Story and Song.  I’m really glad you made it through, though, Angus” M smiles at him, and Angus feels butterflies in his stomach at the sincerity of M’s comment. 

“M, before we pick out something to watch, can I ask you something?” Angus finally decides to get up the nerve to talk, rambling because it is Angus after all. He reaches over and grabs a notebook from his bedside table and opens it to a blank page. “I mean, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. I’m just trying to gather some research I suppose about a personal topic and I would appreciate it if you didn’t share it with everyone else. I’ve talked to my dads about it but I would rather talk to you because I feel like you have the closest firsthand experience with the topic and so your input and perspective would be greatly influential to the data,” he finishes, already flushed red but perhaps the more scientific he makes it sound the less he will have to think about his actual feelings. 

“Angus, you can ask me anything, you’re my best bud. What’s going on?” M picks up on Angus’ anxieties and they turn more to face Angus. They look down at the blank notebook.

“I just… how did… why did you pick… your pronouns?” Angus starts, then jots down some shorthanded paraphrasing of his question as a bullet point on the page.

“Uhhh, what?” M asks, tilting their head and looking minorly offended, closed-off.

And that was definitely not Angus’ intention. He never wants M to feel anything less than what they are – his best friend, his closest confidant, the smartest, most intuitive, most caring person he’s ever met.  Angus backtracks, feeling the anxiety bubble up into his throat and making it hard to breathe.  How is he supposed to take back the words that he’s already said? He’s already offended M and that’s totally not what he meant to do and-

“Angus, sometimes gender isn’t a binary. Sometimes it makes more sense like a spectrum. And I realized that I liked that interpretation of gender better. I like that I can wear dresses and a bra, and sometimes I can wear pants and a shirt, and it doesn’t matter to my friends because they just see me for me.  I think that sexuality is probably similar, and sometimes it’s easy to classify like ‘oh, I like boys’ or ‘oh, I like girls’ but most of the times it feels like it’s more complicated and there’s all of this in-between space like when you start liking someone because they’re your best friend and they’re easy to talk to and you want to hang out with them every day for the rest of forever, you know?  And you stop caring about what’s between their legs and instead about what’s in their head and their heart.  And I think that’s what gender is. It’s less about what’s between your legs and more about what’s in your head and in your heart. 

Angus stares at M, pen poised at the top of his paper, and watches M monologue.  He wishes he would’ve recorded it, because it’s the most beautiful and wholesome thing he’s ever heard and he feels like it could be the barebones of a piece of poetry.  He takes a second to let their words sink in, to not just comprehend but to understand where they’re coming from and to put it into perspective of both their life and his life.  It doesn’t just make sense, it _resonates_ and that sensation is overwhelming and terrifying.  And Angus just watches them, mouth a bit slack, completely bewildered at what he’s just heard and what it all means.

“M,” he sighs finally, and puts his notebook down and reaches forward to wrap M in a hug. M isn’t one for physical contact, but knows that years of living with Magnus’ bear hugs and Taako’s constant affection has conditioned Angus into needing this. M hugs him back, and they hold each other while Angus trembles a little bit, still shaken to his core by what he’s just heard and what it could mean.  “I want to write that down, but I don’t even know how to. It was so beautiful” he whispers into their hair and M squeezes him hard.  

“Angus, I don’t know what you’re going through, but you shouldn’t worry so much,” M whispers into his hair, and _that_ resonates with him, too.  He sighs and pulls away, swallowing down emotions he doesn’t want to be having in front of his best friend. 

“I have a lot of anxiety. I’m just so nervous all of the time. And I wish it made sense” he answers quietly, staring down at his (mostly blank) notebook.

“I know, I’ve noticed. But you’re amazing, and you’re going to _be_ amazing, and it always works out in the end,” they smile, and Angus smiles a little bit at that too.  He sighs and picks up the remote to the TV, handing it over to M.

“I feel better. Thank you” he assures, and M smiles back at him and looks up at the TV. They decide to fall asleep to some history documentary that’s interesting, but not interesting enough to keep them awake throughout its entirety.

 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Taako doesn’t really need to sleep, so when he wakes up before the sun rises he decides it’s a better time than ever to get a jump start on breakfast. He pads his way down the hallway, pausing to peer into Angus’ room. He watches the teenager’s sleeping faces dance under the lights of the TV, still flicking through a paused screen in the darkness. They’re like crescent moons, facing each other but bent away at the centers, faces resting a mere few inches from one another’s, and he imagines that they stayed up late talking about life, or maybe about gender, or maybe about whatever nonsense Fantasy Netflix show they decided to watch, and he smiles that they are both safe.

He finds his way to the kitchen and puts on a pot of coffee before he hears Kravitz follow in his footsteps, another being who doesn’t rely on the mortal need for sleep to reenergize for another day. His elf ears pick up on the quiet padding down the hallway, the pause by Angus’ room, the whispered steps that grow louder as he makes his way into the kitchen.  Kravitz kisses Taako on the side of his face and wraps his hands around the elf while the two of them wait for the coffee to brew. 

“My love, you didn’t sleep” he whispers into the elf’s ear, and damn it if the low grumble of his voice and the warm breath on his neck doesn’t still do things to his body that he doesn’t want to need to deal with when there are two sleeping teenagers down the hall.

“Mmmm, Krav, you know how it is. Just anxious to hear about how his night went,” Taako answers, just barely pressing himself back into Kravitz’ embrace.

“Me too,” he answers shortly, and Taako smiles with reassurance as he turns and kisses the man endearingly.  They stay like that for a breath of time, before the coffee pot beeps its completion and Taako turns again to pour them each a cup.  They wander over to the table and sit next to each other, taking in the first sips of the morning, still covered in the darkness of early, early hours. 

“Do you think… do you think I should talk to him?” Kravitz asks quietly, peering into his cup of coffee as if he was asking it instead of the elf at the table next to him.

“I think that’s entirely up to you, bubelah,” Taako answers honestly.  “You don’t have to though, if you think it’s going to be too difficult or if you’re going to be too uncomfortable. You’re not required to talk to anyone about it, babe”

“But isn’t that the point? He’s our _kid_ and he’s _uncomfortable_ ” he sighs, still not looking up from his cup. He looks like he’s about to cry.

Taako doesn’t know how to respond, so instead he exhales and watches Kravitz sort through his thoughts from the steamy cup of coffee. He takes small sips of his own, and waits for the man to want to speak again.  It feels like an eternity before he whispers, “I just don’t ever want him to feel like that”.

Taako nods sympathetically, because he couldn’t understand exactly what Kravitz means, but he never wants Angus to feel unloved or unwanted either.  It’s all still so new to him, after years of not wanting to trust anyone outside of his own sister, the depth of his love for his family is bottomless.  It hurts all of them to watch Angus go through this, to have to let him figure it out on his own and just offer him support and understanding, but it hits a little closer to home for Kravitz than it does the rest of them, and that’s the part that Taako could never understand – watching so many similarities between his childhood and his kid’s childhood.

“Krav, I can’t imagine how he’s feeling, I really can’t. And it fucking sucks to have to wait for him to figure it out and to know that he’s probably hurt or scared or unsure of who he is, but he has _us_ , you know? Like we’re the three gayest fucks he has ever met and we’re his _dads_ you know?  And like, no offense, but your parents fucking sucked and the time that you were alive sucked. And I guess I just keep thinking, like, thank gods if Angus is going to have a gender crisis or a sexuality crisis or whatever he’s having, thank gods he gets to have it with us to support him and love him and reassure him that whatever he wants to be is valid.”

Kravitz nods, taking in Taako’s words of wisdom and letting them sink in.  He’s right, his logic is spot on, but it doesn’t entirely resolve the anxiety he’s feeling.  Taako reaches out and rests his hand against Kravitz’.  They sit in silence for a while more, enjoying company but both lost in thought.  It’s when Taako’s mug is finally empty and the first rays of sun begin to filter into the house that Taako stands and starts to gather ingredients, pots, and pans for his pancake breakfast.  He was right that sleep Taako was able to aid in a good recipe for combining chocolate and peanut butter into a gourmet pancake breakfast, so he loses himself in the process and it isn’t long before the house is filling with the smells and sounds of cooking and Magnus is wandering down the hallway to find them in the kitchen.

Taako smiles when he first hears the human’s sleepy, stumbling footsteps. He sighs when he listens to them pause halfway down the hallway, presumably to peer into Angus’ room like each of them have yet this morning, before starting again to complete his journey to the kitchen.  It warms Taako’s heart in a way that he can’t quite put into words to know that Angus is so treasured and cared for by both of the men that he loves.

Magnus leans over and kisses Kravitz on the cheek first, then comes up behind Taako and kisses the elf’s ear.  Once again, Taako fights against his body and bats the human away as he goes to stir the peanut butter mousse.

Magnus pours himself a cup of black coffee and sits down next to Kravitz, who has been sitting quietly with his thoughts for most of the morning, and his half-empty, now cold cup of coffee does a good job of alerting Magnus to his state.

“Krav, babe, what’s wrong? Are you worried about Angus?” Magnus intuits, already feeling more awake now that he’s had a few sips (half of his cup) of coffee.  Kravitz sighs and stretches, bones cracking as he sits up straighter and half smiles at Magnus. 

“Yeah. It’s silly, I know” he sighs, and Magnus shakes his head as he drains the last of his cup of coffee. 

“It’s not silly, babe.  It’s close to home. You’re allowed to be anxious about this” he reassures, and Kravitz smiles at him. 

It’s then that the three of them hear voices from down the hall, and two sleepy teenagers appear into the kitchen, yawning their greetings at the men.  They find their places at the table as the two men already sitting there smile their greetings. 

“ ‘ood mornin’, sirs,” Angus mumbles through yawn, pushing aside his glasses to rub at sleepy eyes.  Magnus chuckles at the sleepy teenagers, and Taako sets two empty glasses down infront of them. 

“Milk or orange ouice, M?” He asks as he pours freshly squeezed orange juice into Angus’ glass.

The boy takes a long and satisfied gulp of the juice, which M watches entranced before answering, “I’ll have some of that, please! Did you make this?!?”

“Fresh this morning, kemosabe. Let me know if you like it,” Taako responds and pours a second glass for M.

“This is incredible! I can’t believe you woke up so early just to have this ready for us. Thank you” M responds after taking a long gulp of the juice themself, and Taako smiles down at the teenager.

“Ain’t but a thang. Elves and the undead don’t need sleep,” he winks at Kravitz, who blushes and stands to pour himself a fresh cup of coffee. Taako starts setting plates of hot pancakes with sculpted mousse in front of each place setting on the table, finally finishing with his own. He makes sure the stove is off, and finds his place next to Kravitz once again while the lot of them dig into their breakfasts.  It’s an incredible dish, naturally, and Magnus moans his way through devouring his stack of pancakes before anyone else can finish half of their plate.

“Taako, babe, I was a little upset that we weren’t getting those incredible chocolate-banana pancakes, but GODS that was INCREDIBLE,” Magnus praises, jumping up to kneel next to the elf and kissing the side of his face all over. Taako laughs, blushing, and shoo’s the human away as he takes another bite.

 

“Natch,” he grins, and the atmosphere feels light.


	5. Shopping Spree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angus' detective skills finally come to fruition. Also, the group goes shopping!

It was an early Wednesday morning when Taako looked around his quiet breakfast table and into the faces of his two strung-out looking partners and declared a self-care lazy day.  Despite their automatic objections of not being able to just call off an entire day of work, it really didn’t take much convincing for Magnus and Kravitz to call off work in favor of lounging around in the den. It was now midafternoon and Angus and Magnus were fast asleep on each end of the couch, legs tangled up in the middle, and Taako sat on the floor with Kravitz’ head in his lap, running fingers through his locks and humming quietly to the lull of a late morning sun.

“Krav,” Taako speaks softly, not wanting to disturb the two slumbering on the couch, “you know I hate talking about feelings and emotions and shit, but you keep telling me that it’s good for emotional health or whatever, so maybe it would be good? For you?"

Kravitz sighs deeper into Taako’s delicate finger patterns, watching the ceiling as he mulls over the suggestion.  “I just don’t… I don’t know, I don’t want to be a bother-“

“You are the farthest thing from a bother, babe, and if we had to wake up and force you out of your head every single night, you know we would do it. But I just don’t think you want to do that? I don’t think you realize how uptight and uncomfortable you’ve been for weeks now, Kravvy”

Kravitz lets that one sink in a little bit.  He’s noticed that he’s been a little more closed off, but he thought that he was doing a good job of keeping his family unaware of his anxieties.  Maybe he should talk about it, maybe it really would help.

Angus sits up at that point, readjusting his body on the couch to a less horizontal position, and leans over to the coffee table to pick up the mug of tea that had been only half consumed. He waves a hand over it, and immediately steam begins flowing from the surface. He smiles a bit to himself as he draws the cup to his lips and takes a long, comforting sip.  

“Sirs,” he begins, shifting in his seat, and Kravitz and Taako looks up at him. “I honestly didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but you’re sitting right next to us and it’s hard to not hear everything you’re saying. In any event, can I ask you something?”

“Anything, Angus,” Kravitz responds automatically, sitting up from his spot and facing the kid.  He is faintly reminded of the night Angus first asked them about gender.  

“Well, I suppose it’s mostly a question for you, sir.  You see, I’m an extremely good detective, and while I might not always roll a high Perception Check, I do tend to overthink situations and replay them in my mind until clues start to become more obvious than they might have been during the time, and I’ve been trying to work through a bit of a mystery. I feel weird keeping it from you though, sir, seeing as it’s about you, and I just wanted to ask you upfront because that seems like the best form of action.  Sir, are you trans?”

Kravitz’ breath catches in his throat, and both his and Taako’s jaws unhinge just a bit. Taako immediately begins rubbing circles into Kravitz’ back as he sputters around for words. Of course Angus would figure it out, he is the smartest kid in the universe and, as he mentioned, a very good detective.  Kravitz looks up to Angus for some reasonable response, but all he can come up with is

“Yeah. Yes, I am”

Angus nods at his response, seeming to acknowledge that as data that solves a mystery, even looking a little bit smug at himself.

“Sir, I have one other question, if that’s alright?” and Kravitz breathes, unsure if he can answer any more.  “Is there such thing as gay-dar, but for trans people?" 

Kravitz cracks a smile at that, and Taako lets out a huff of laughter. Angus smiles a bit, unsure of why the two of them are laughing, but happy to have broken the weird tension in the room.  He crawls down from the couch and pulls Kravitz into a big hug. 

“Sir, thank you for trusting me with this. I promise I won’t tell anyone. But I am so relieved that I have someone like you to talk to” he whispers into Kravitz’ ear, and if Taako wasn’t an elf he probably wouldn’t have heard it at all.  Kravitz clutches the boy closer, breathing in relief that Angus is happy, that he _knows_ , that he can talk to him if he needs to, and tries to hug reassurance into the small body that he is so loved and supported.  Angus squeezes him back hard.

Magnus’ sleepy murmur fills the mostly quiet room during their hug, and it sounds a bit like a questioning groan or a lost noise. 

“Kravitz came out to Angus” Taako responds, and then fixes his statement with, “well, I guess Angus outed Kravitz? I don’t know, our son’s a fucking detective, you know how this shit tends to go,” he shrugs, and Magnus’ eyes shoot open as he looks down the family hug that he’s missing out on.

“Damn it, did I really just sleep through that?! What else did I miss?!” he laughs, joining the hugging boys on the ground and lifting them both up into a giant bear hug. The three of them laugh, having the breath knocked out of them by Magnus’ giant bear arms.  

Taako starts pulling at Magnus from behind, laughing, “Let them go, don’t squish my family to death,” and Magnus just manages to finagle Taako into the big hug as well, making the whole family squish a little tighter.

The atmosphere is light and filled with laughter and love on the lazy, self-care morning.

 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

After much (read: very little) begging, Angus convinced Taako to take him and M out on the town for their afternoon.  M was more than happy to spend their afternoon with the big happy family, and once Kravitz cut a portal for the five of them into a dark alley in Neverwinter, claiming he didn’t want to completely terrify any citizens, the five of them set out to look around at the numerous shops that lay before them.

“Well kids, I guess you can take the lead where we shop first, but Taako does request a manicure before we head home for the evening, so don’t tucker yourselves out too much” Taako starts strutting ahead of his boys with a sway of his hips that draws Magnus and Kravitz’ eyes directly down to his ass.

M looks expectedly to Angus, and the boy takes a deep breath and steps forward to grab one of Taako’s hands.  Taako side-eyes him and smiles his big goofy grin, which encourages Angus to take a deep breath and announce his plans for the trip.

“I want to try on dresses”

“HELL YEAH!” Taako exclaims at the same time M exclaims a more PG rated version of “HECK YEAH!” and the two of them high-five before M grabs Angus’ other hand and starts dragging the crowd across the street. 

“Okay, so I have the PERFECT place for you then” they smile, looking both ways before crossing into an array of stores. M gestures with their other hand at a larger looking boutique, windows decorated with rainbows and flags of all colors that Angus barely has time to catalogue to understand or search later.  “This is my favorite place to shop because the dressing rooms are just like in the middle and the clothes are organized by color instead of having like two separate sections for boys or girls. It’s just like the best” they start rambling, smiling big at Angus who anxiously returns their smile back.  Angus looks back at Taako who has a big ass grin plastered across his face and the man squeeze’s Angus hand before letting go so Angus can explore. He falls back with the other men as the teenagers take off immediately for the red section to start their hunt.

Kravitz and Magnus look around the store a bit in awe of the color coordinated sections and the array of people searching through the racks of clothes. 

“This is incredible,” Kravitz breathes, eyebrows knit together as he takes in the inclusiveness of the store, and Taako leans up to peck the man’s cheek.  Gods, why wasn’t he born in a time like this.

“Taako needs a new black skirt, what do you boys think?” He grins a little mischievously, nodding his head over at the section next to where Angus and M are filling a shopping cart with items.  The men head over to start pulling clothes off the racks in an effort to keep themselves looking busy, all the while staying mostly silent to listen in on Angus and M’s adventure. They’re the most, really.

The next half hour goes by just like that, with the adults following around the kids in the most inconspicuous (read: totally obvious) way possible, giving the teens room to have private conversations but never falling too far away to give thumbs up and positive feedback to the incredibly uncomfortable teenager with a deeply red face, pulling out dresses and putting them in their cart.  The adults of course manage to fill theirs up as well, with various items for the three of them to try on, and they all make their way to dressing rooms at the same time, Taako and M sandwiching Angus in on both sides, Kravitz and Magnus taking their garments into their own rooms as well.

“Oooooh, Taako’s liking a great deal of these, hope you boys are ready for some magic here in a bit,” Taako voices loud enough for everyone to hear them through the thin dressing room walls. Kravitz chuckles and there’s the sound of a door opening. “Ango, how are you doing?”

 “I- err… I don’t know, sir. I can’t figure out how-“

 There’s a quiet knocking on one of the doors, and then M is in the same room with Ango, who is somehow blushing even a deeper red, trying to figure out how to zip the back of one of the dresses up.

 “Angus, that is a great color on you,” M smiles and moves to zip the dress up behind him and the two of them stare into the mirror before them.  This particular red dress is more formal, falling below the boy’s knees and fitting snugly on his hips. He moves around to look at the dress from all sides, turning to see the deep back of the dress, the form fitting fabric hugging him from all sides. “How are you feeling?” they ask quietly, moving the conversation to be between just the two of them.

“I don’t – errr”

“If you don’t like it, that’s okay. You don’t have to” M reassures, going to unzip the dress and it falls to the floor. Angus stares at the other dresses still hanging and waiting to be tried on. He motions to grab another one, pulls it on over his head, is glad to find there are no weird zippers on this one. This one is more Summery, with a grass green fabric and a few flowers decorating the skirt. It’s more breathable, but falls above his knees, and Angus knocks them together uncomfortably.

“I don’t like how breezy it is” he whispers, and M chuckles, rubbing Angus’ back in a comforting gesture.

“You can always wear shorts underneath them. Personally, I like having all of the breeziness, but I didn’t when I first started out” they respond, and Angus nods and moves to try on another dress.

This one has a zipper along the side, which Angus still struggles to pull up and M ends up helping him. It’s about the same length of the first dress, made from the same silky fabric, but fits Angus a little looser.  The skirt floats out around his waist, and he makes to turn and watch the fabric dance away from his body, still watching his reflection in the mirror. He looks visibly less uncomfortable than he did in the first two dresses and M makes note of that.

“This one is… the best so far, do you think?” He asks anxiously, and M gives him a big grin and nods rapidly.

“Oh yeah, it’s a super cute shape!” they respond, running hands along Angus’ bare arms. 

“I think I like when they’re looser.  And longer” he reasons, and M goes to move two of the dresses that they haven’t tried on yet but look short and tighter to the “do not purchase” pile that has been accruing on a chair in the dressing room.

“Want to try on this floor length skirt? You could wear it with one of your t-shirts if you wanted, or dress it up with a blouse” they grab a skirt and Angus grins and puts it on. The fabric is very soft, and Angus spends time running his hands down his thighs as he stares at his reflection in the mirror.

“Do you want to wear any of these out of the store?” M asks quietly, and Angus looks away from his reflection to look at M’s.  He looks back at the skirt, and starts to take it off and put his shorts back on. 

“No, I don’t think I’m ready for that, if that’s alright?” He asks hesitantly, handing the garment to M. M grins and ruffles the teen’s head when he’s dressed and goes to open the door.

“Of course that’s alright. Want to get anything?”

Angus ponders over the mountain of clothes on the chair, and picks up most of them and puts them in a bin for returning back to the racks.  He hands the third dress that he tried on to M, and looks hesitantly to them before M smiles and opens their unoccupied arm to give the boy a big hug.

“I am so proud of you for coming here today. I am so proud of you for trying these clothes on. I am so proud of you for wanting to figure out who you are” they whisper into Angus’ ear, and Angus gives them a big hug back, obviously feeling better from the small words of encouragement. 

When they pull apart, he looks up to notice his dads smiling at the two hugging, and he looks down with big eyes at what Magnus is now wearing.

“Do you like my kilt? I’m buying seven” he smiles big, motioning towards the pile of kilts stacking the men’s cart. Kravitz laughs at him and shakes his head, interlacing his fingers with the fighters.

“I tried to tell him to just pick one, but I was at least able to talk him out of buying all of them” he sighs.

M comes up behind Angus, not carrying anything, and Angus looks questioningly at their empty arms. M shrugs, “Ehhh, I have too many clothes at home. I am really looking forward to a manicure though!” They smile, and Taako fist bumps into the air and starts leading the way towards the check-out counter.


	6. Trying It Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angus tries on his new clothes and invites a friend over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so I started writing this but then I got a liiiiiiittle wine drunk and got carried away. I didn't want to post like two billion words in one chapter, so the next chapter will be a continuation of this one in a sense. My bad.

 

Angus takes a deep breath. He’d decided this morning shortly after he’d awoken that today would be his first day wearing his new skirt. The curiosity had been burning through his mind the whole week since he had purchased it, but he hadn’t yet felt the confidence to actually wear it.  But with all three of his dads out of the house for the majority of the day, and no actual plans for himself outside of hanging around inside, he’d decided that today would be the safest day to wear the skirt.  It wasn’t that he wasn’t comfortable around his dads – they had been more than supportive throughout the whole thing, checking in on him and reassuring him that he could come to them if he ever needed anything – but this was something he felt was private, something he wanted to do for himself and see how he felt about it before getting any other perspective on the whole thing.  

He draws in another deep breath and starts putting on the tshirt he had chosen for the day – something soft and red that he knew he would feel the most comfortable in.  It takes another moment of lip worrying and deep breathing before he steps into and pulls on the long, floor length skirt. 

He doesn’t feel any different. He stares down at the soft fabric and wills his body to have some kind of a reaction to the piece of clothing – either some kind of deep rooted dysphoria or maybe some kind of revulsion to wearing the outfit would certainly do some good to add to his gender affirming data…. But nothing. He doesn’t feel anything towards the piece of clothing at all – it was just another piece of bottoms to him. He sighs and twists his hips a bit to get the fabric to flow around him.  Still, nothing really strikes a chord inside of him and he resigns to leaving his bedroom.

The first order of business for the late morning is to fix a cup of tea and do some light reading. He didn’t have a lot of homework to do, since it was summer break after all, but Angus likes to keep ahead of his studies by pre-reading his textbooks before school begins so that by the time the teachers were going over the material, he already has his own knowledge and notes about the subject and can build from there. He brews himself a cup of Earl Grey and props himself on the couch in the den with his textbook on African history along with a highlighter, pen, and notebook – the perfect learning instruments. 

Angus quickly learns that it is difficult to sit comfortably on the couch in the floor length skirt. He has to sit with his knees together no matter what, but if he tries to adjust at all on the couch, he has to push his whole body up in order to not pull the fabric down below his boxers while scooting to a more comfortable position. The whole ordeal provides a much more intensive ab movement than he’s used to, and while he considers that this would be a minor inconvenience he could over time learn to adjust to, at the time it just frustrates him to no end. He has to completely divide his attention away from his book in order to reposition his body on the couch, adjust the skirt’s fabric in a way that doesn’t wrinkle or stretch, and then begin reading again.  It’s absurd.

After about an hour of reading, Angus downs the rest of his cup of tea and closes his book around his notebook – a habit he hates to do because it breaks the book’s back.  He twists his body so that he can set both feet firmly down on the floor, adjusts the skirt another time, and moves to stand up.  He walks the cup of tea to the kitchen, washes the cup, and sets off to deposit his textbook back into his bedroom on the desk that sits in there.  He then makes his way back out to the kitchen for his next order of business for the day – lunch.

Taako, being the impeccable chef (and father) that he is, had prepared a meal in the fridge with careful heating instructions for the boy to follow. Angus removes the dish from the fridge and places the pan into the now heated oven (thanks, magic) and sits down at the table to set a timer on his Stone of Farspeech for the thirty-seven minutes Taako wrote it would take.  While waiting, he opens up his Fantasy Twitter app and begins scrolling through the feed.

For the most part, Angus followed scientists and biographers to keep up-to-date on new books and works being put out by his heroes.  He did follow a great deal of his friends on the social media device, though, and their Fantasy Tweets show up amidst the academic feed as he scrolls.  It was there that he notices that M had posted this morning a tweet that was just a singular ‘meh’ emoji.  Angus wrinkles his brow and opens the text messaging app on his Stone and types out a message to M.

_Hello, M. I just wanted to see_

Delete.

_Hey, M, How are you doing? I was_

Delete.

_What’s up?_

_…_

_…_

DELETE.

_Hello! I just what you were up to today. I noticed your tweet from this morning, and it did not look like you were feeling all that great, and I wanted to make sure you were feeling alright._

Angus wrote and deliberated over the two sentences for far longer than he felt was normal before forcing himself to press _send_ and then immediately clicking back to the Fantasy Twitter app in an effort to not occupy his mind with whether or not M had read and was responding to the message. It turns out that Angus didn’t need to worry at all, because M’s response was almost immediate.

_Hey. Just having a bleh day.  What’s up with you._

M was usually full of exclamation points and positive remarks whenever they texted Angus, so Angus immediately winces at the text message. He begins to type up a response, but then and instead decides to call Taako. 

“Angus, are you okay?”  Taako answers, a bit breathless after only a second or two of ringing.

“Sir? Yes, I’m fine, why are you out of breath?”

Taako sighs over the line deeply and chuckles a bit.

“I’m fine Angus, just didn’t know why you were ringing me. What’s crack-a-lacking my man?”

“Well, M isn’t feeling good today, and I was wondering if I could invite them to come over for a bit?” 

“Of course you can invite them over. Want Krav to swipe up a portal? What’s going on – they aren’t sick are they? Don’t want you getting sick because you know that if one of us gets sick then –“  
  
“No, sir, nothing like that. They just said they were having a ‘bleh’ day.  I haven’t invited them yet, so I don’t even know if they’ll say yes or not. I can call Krav-“  
  
“Angus, I’m here with Taako, just let me know whatever you’d like us to do” Kravitz’s voice comes in warmly over the stone and Angus tries to wrack his brain with why Kravitz would be with Taako in the middle of a Wednesday. 

“Oh, I, oh… I didn’t know you were together. I’m sorry to bother you sirs,” he mumbles through his confusion, feeling immediately bad for bothering them on their… date?

“Ango McDango, if you ever fucking apologize for calling me again I will slice your pinky toes off. You are literally never a _bother_ to us, Krav just came over to have lunch with me on his break. Did you eat lunch yet? I put a pan of lasagna in the fridge and if you just pull the foil off the top you can stick it in the oven for thirty-seven minutes… did I leave instructions on it? Are they clear enough? I can walk you through the entire process-”

“Yes, sir, you left very explicit instructions on the lasagna, and thank you for that. I’m going to text M and see if they want to come over. Can I text you what they say?”

“ ‘Course sugar plum. Love you. Be safe. Make sure that once you pull the lasagna out of the oven, you let the whole pan sit for ten minutes before you slice into it so that the cheese can set-“  
  
“Got it, sir! Love you too!”  Angus hangs up his phone.

Still in the middle of a text to M, he deletes all that he wrote and takes a deep breath before starting again.

_If you would like some company, my dads said_

Delete.

_If you’re not doing anything, maybe you ca_

 Delete. 

_Do you want to come over?_

Sent. 

This time, Angus stares at the messaging app and watches as his message receipt turns from _delivered_ to _read_ and then watches the typing bubble pop up, butterflies fluttering in his stomach.

  _I would love that. Can your dad do that cool portal thing again? That was sick._

Angus chuckles.

_Yes, just let me know when you’d like him to cut the portal._

Angus shoots out a text to the group message between him and his dads that M was going to come over and he would let them know when they were ready, and he didn’t receive a response when he heard a portal cut itself into the room.

“-And tell ‘im to make sure that he takes out the lasagna at _exactly_ thirty seven minutes because if he burns my fucking-“ the portal closed on Taako and Kravitz smiled warmly at the boy.

“Taako sends his love. How are you?” he asks as he sits down at the table, propping his scythe against the table. 

“I am doing alright. Just finished reading a bit on early African history, waiting for lunch.  How’s work today, sir?” Angus answers, smiling at the man.

“Ahhh, the recording of the earliest times of Africa has changed so much over time. It’s truly interesting how interpretations of their prehistoric events are interpreted with the discovery of different sciences that can date artifacts so accurately, is it not? I’ve loved following the writings over time, and I have to say that I believe that current writings must be the most truthful in all of time. Have you read any African history books dated back even just two hundred years ago? It’s fascinating….” Kravitz trails off in thought as Angus listens intently, loving how much knowledge the man has gained over his millennia of reading and watching and learning.  Angus wishes he could sit down and write everything that Kravitz knows, but it seems that there would never be enough books to contain his knowledge.

“My textbook is very interesting. I just read the first few chapters today, about the first humans on the continent, and it’s so interesting how many species of human there once were and how there’s just the one species now. I’m really looking forward to learning more about that development” Angus responds, reflecting back on his reading. He also makes a mental note to do a comparative analysis of African textbooks over the centuries.  

“It is true, there is so much to learn from our history. I know a good deal about human, orc, gremlin, and of course Reaper history. I should start to read about early Elven history, maybe learn about our dear Taako’s ancestors,” Kravitz muses, and Angus’ stone buzzes to let them know that M is _Ready whenever you are_.

“M is ready for us. Is that okay, sir?”  
  
“Absolutely” Kravitz reaches over without standing up from the table and picks up his scythe, cutting a portal between the kitchen and M’s home. M smiles warmly at the two of them and steps through, grinning bigger once he enters the home and the portal closes up behind them.

“ _SICK_ I love when you do that!” M greets with a big smile and Kravitz stands.

“Thank you, it is a perk of my job, of course. Which I must be getting back to. Angus, please call if you need anything, but I think that I should be home around supper time.  Have an enjoyable afternoon,” he winks at the boy, and the two of them wave him off as he cuts a portal into the Astral Plane and returns to work.

“Is he – I mean, are any of your dads home?” M asks anxiously, looking around the empty kitchen. It is of course then that Angus’ stone begins beeping that the lasagna is ready to be removed from the oven.

Angus stands and goes towards the oven to retrieve lunch.  “No, Kravitz and Magnus are at work during the day, and Taako is at some kind of cooking convention.  They’ll all be home in a few hours, but we have the place to ourselves until then. Taako prepped lunch, though, and it should be ready for eating in…” Angus glances down at the note written in Taako’s impeccable Elvish cursive writing, “ten minutes. We can cut into it in ten minutes,” he smiles over at M and they nod and sit down at the table. Angus moves to grab two plates from the cabinets and sets two place settings down at the table for them.

“I think I can wait that long.  What have you been up to today, Angus?” They ask as Angus takes his seat next to his friend 

“Not much – just reading and hanging around mostly. I’m more worried about you, though, M. What’s been going on?”  He asks anxiously, watching M’s face fall from the mask they’d been wearing since they came over to a sedated, deflated version of themself.

“I don’t know. Just not feeling really great today, you know?  I kind of have just been laying in bed to be honest…” they admitted, staring down at the plate in front of them.

“I’ve had days where I felt like not getting out of bed, too. Usually my dads make me, though, and make me do things I enjoy. What do you like doing? Maybe we can just hang around and do those things?” Angus asks, getting excited towards the end of his statements.

“I… I like to watch dumb youtube videos about our current news? Do you want to watch those while we eat your dad’s lasagna?”  
  
“Of course!” Angus beams, standing up from the table. It’s been close to ten minutes by  now, right? The cheese has probably set. “Go queue up your favorite video on the TV in my room! I’ll bring us food!” Angus stands from the table and heads for the stove where he has set the lasagna and M gets out of their chair too and heads towards Angus’ room.

“Of course, dude. Hey,” they say, before they head down the hallway, stopping just next to Angus. “Thanks. For like, this. And for everything. You’re… you’re my best friend” they say. And angus wrinkles his brow and leans forward and wraps M in a giant hug.

“You’re my best friend” Angus whispers in their ear. And they stay like that for a long, long moment.


	7. Talking About It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> M and Angus have a heart to heart about gender, mental illness, and everything in between.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys what's up I'm sorry that it's been a while. Mental illness is a thing, you know, so I deal with that and shit. It's whatevs. I'm going to use this chapter to talk about that a bit. Idk. enjoy.

Angus brings a tray into his bedroom with two generous servings of lasagna shortly after M figures out how to put the Fantasy Youtube on the Fantasy TV. Somehow, it’s only as he’s leaning over the bed to hand M their plate that he realizes that he’s still wearing a skirt.  Angus freezes, but the gears in his brains start rapid fire shooting thoughts at him. _Had I honestly forgotten about the skirt? Did Kravitz notice I was wearing it? Does M think differently about me? They were there when I got it, I mean they literally helped me pick this out and try it on, of course they don’t think differently of me. Should I change? Am I comfortable enough to keep wearing it? How did I forget I was wearing the skirt? Did I just go on autopilot when I saw M was upset, or am I really this comfortable in this garment?_

Angus is brought out of his thoughts by a questioning look from M.  He decides to put his skirt slash gender crises on the backburner of his mind, better to deal with these thoughts when he’s alone, and instead focus on bringing M back to themself. He gives M a reassuring smile and settles himself on the bed, adjusting the fabric of the skirt beneath him as he rests his back against the head of the bed, legs out straight in front of him. 

M adjusts into a similar position, and the two of them eat in mostly silence while they watch the video M has pulled up.  Of course, once M takes their first bite of the lasagna, they’re gushing about how incredible it tastes and how is it even possible that Taako can cook everything so well. Angus chuckles as he continues to devour the lunch, listening to both M and the Fantasy Youtuber recounting the week’s current events in a rapid whirlwind of information overload.  The video lasts just under ten minutes, and the TV starts automatically queuing up another video, one that both teens have seen before. 

Angus mulls over what he wants to say to M.  He wants to be there for them – to show them that they can talk to him about whatever’s on their mind… but he doesn’t know how to put those concerns into words without overwhelming M if they really don’t want to talk about whatever’s wrong.  He luckily doesn’t have to think for long before M, without looking away from the screen, starts speaking.

“I don’t know why I get like this sometimes. Some days I wake up and everything feels like too much,” they admit, and Angus frowns and the tone of their voice. 

“Did anything trigger it?  It’s okay if nothing did. Sometimes nothing has to,” Angus responds, choosing his words carefully.

“No? I mean, I don’t think so?  I just woke up and laid in bed on my phone until you texted me. I did the same thing yesterday, to be honest…” they admit, trailing off quietly.

Angus represses the _caretaker_ voice in his brain to switch over to _friend_ instead, choosing a response he feels would be the most appropriate. “Does that happen a lot?”

“No.  Yes. I don’t know”

“Like… once a month?” Maybe asking indirect questions isn’t the way to go.

M is silent for a minute, still looking at the screen, but obviously lost in their thoughts.

“Yeah… it happens probably most days. I just deal with it better. I get up and read, or go outside, or do something to ignore it”

The teenagers are silent for a bit at that. The Fantasy Youtube video ends, and another one queues up immediately after. 

“Have you ever like… been to a doctor? Like, a psychiatrist, I mean?” Angus asks, still barely talking above a whisper and facing the screen in front of them. He watches M out of his peripheral, sees M push some food around on their plate nervously, flipping over words in their mind.

“Yeah, I mean, I used to for… I don’t know, maybe I’m just being lazy”

“M, you are the farthest thing from lazy that I have ever met,” Angus counters immediately.  M swallows his words and continues to watch the lasagna skate around their plate in front of their fork.  “You know, my dads and I… we all go and see doctors for our mental health. I go because I get really anxious a lot, about things that I say and the way that people act around me.  It’s not scary or anything like that.  We just kind of… talk about things”

“We’re talking about things,” M mumbles under their breath.  Angus sighs.

“Yeah, but the doctors know what kinds of questions to ask. And sometimes they can even give you medicine to make things better, too, if they think that would help you”

“I do not want to be medicated,” M interjects, speaking a little more confidently and finally looking up at Angus.

“M, I’m not saying that you need to be, or that they’ll make you if you really don’t want it. I just think that it’s like anything and if you’re not feeling great you should see a doctor,” Angus defends. M watches Angus’ facial expressions for a minute longer before looking down at their lasagna again.

“No, I know. You’re right. I need to see a doctor”

Angus nods and drops his head to watch M push around their lasagna some more.  They sit in mostly silence, with the Fantasy TV giving a soft background noise to their thoughts.  Angus realizes that he’s entirely not sure where to steer the direction of their conversation at this point.

“You said that you uhhh… get anxiety about the way that people act around you.  Do you get anxiety around me?” M asks, almost to just themself.

Angus stares at M for a moment, and then just past their face into the distance as he tries to answer honestly.

“I get anxiety around everyone,” Angus chooses his words carefully.  “It’s in fluctuating degrees with different people, and about varying stimuli. And none of it is ever rational, but that doesn’t really make the panic go away”

Angus swallows down the rest of the words that he could say, that he wants to say, that he especially wants to say to M.  He swallows them like large pills, feels his throat catch on his swallow and wills his cheeks to keep from flushing.  M watches his face distort with discomfort and wrinkles their eyebrows.

“Is there anything I can do to like, reassure you? That you’re, like, my absolute best friend and I love you?”

Angus smirks and lets out a huff of air, leaning the top of his head against M’s shoulder.

“Nah, that’s… thank you, M. You tell me that almost every day, and I certainly know”

M smiles and leans their head onto Angus’, and they stay like that for a moment in considerable comfort. 

“You know, you’re hella rocking that skirt today, Angus,” M finally breeches their silence.

Angus chuckles and lifts his head up, adjusting his legs and the fabric draping over them.  He rubs his hands over his thigh like he had done in the dressing room before, reveling in the soft cotton threads.

“Thanks, M, I appreciate it. I wasn’t planning on wearing it in front of you, to be honest.  I was just kind of hanging out around the house and forgot to change before you came over.  And I guess I’m not sure if that happened because I’m comfortable in the fabric, or because I’m comfortable around you?” Angus rambles.

“Well, I hope that regardless of what you learn from this experience, I hope that you’re comfortable around me. But tell me how were you feeling before I came over?”

Angus slides his body off of the bed and stands to put his finished plate back on the tray on his dresser.  He stretches his arms above his head and turns back to face M before responding, buying him some time to think about his response.

“I was… annoyed that I couldn’t lay on the couch in the living room in the same way that I can in shorts.  But I was also considering that these were just things I needed to learn how to do comfortably in a skirt, that would take some time”.

“Do you think that you’ll wear it again?”

Angus pulls the fabric of the skirt up so that he can resituate himself on the bed. 

“Yeah, I mean… I’ll definitely have to collect more data before I can complete the experiment, you know? I just don’t know if I’m ready to wear it… like around other people yet? Or if I’m ready to really know what any of it means”

“That’s okay, Angus. These things take time to figure out. And sometimes, you think you have it figured out, but then after a while realize that you like something else even better. Everyone goes through it. You’re not alone for taking your time with it”

“Thanks, M. I’m so glad I have you in my life,” Angus smiles over at M.  M smiles back, and picks up the Fantasy controller once more.

“We’re going to watch some It Gets Better videos to help you learn more about the gender spectrum, get ready to go on a wild journey, my friend!” Angus laughs, punching the letters into the Fantasy Youtube to pull up some results.

“I don’t know what that means, but I can’t wait to find out” Angus sighs, laying back further into the bed.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks, as always, for reading! I need some help though - give me some advice on where this story should go from here? 
> 
> I would appreciate it :) Also feel free to leave any other construct comments/criticism, as always!


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